The Digital Age. Freedom of information will liberate the masses. Yeah, right. It sounds good in theory, but what happens when the network collapses? Cyberwars raged even as we slept, dropping kiloton e-bombs and blasting away more bits and bytes than you could ever imagine. It all happened out there in the ether as we went about our business, annoyed when the TMZ was slow to load on our cell phones. Or so our grandparents say. The ones who survived that is.
Security relies on information. Without the one, there can't be the other. So while we were fretting about YouTube lag and LOLcats being down for days at a time, hundreds of tons of chemical and biological weapons made their way across our borders. The physical attacks didn't need to be coordinated once the network was in tatters, and all it took was a spark to start the firestorm. Whole metropolises burned and democracy collapsed under the weight of terror and confusion. Neighbors clawed at each other's eyes in the street for a last loaf of bread even as disease spread through the crowds mobbing the food vaults.
That was half a century ago and a only a handful of survivors remember those sorry times. It's 2063. We've regrouped, coming together by way of ideology, religion, or simple co-dependence, and not always peacefully. There's the memory of the old world and all that data out there somewhere, like an invisible gold mine floating in the sky waiting to be tapped. Some want to reconnect to that past; others want to eradicate it from memory and start over with a clean slate. What about you? What kind of future do you envision? And more importantly, are you willing to stick your neck out to see it come to pass?
Image from: http://svalts.tumblr.com/post/804033958/steampunk-city-by-marco-rolandi
The Digital Age. Freedom of information will liberate the masses. Yeah, right. It sounds good in theory, but what happens when the network collapses? Cyberwars raged even as we slept, dropping kiloton e-bombs and blasting away more bits and bytes than you could ever imagine. It all happened out there in the ether as we went about our business, annoyed when the TMZ was slow to load on our cell phones. Or so our grandparents say. The ones who survived that is.
Security relies on information. Without the one, there can't be the other. So while we were fretting about YouTube lag and LOLcats being down for days at a time, hundreds of tons of chemical and biological weapons made their way across our borders. The physical attacks didn't need to be coordinated once the network was in tatters, and all it took was a spark to start the firestorm. Whole metropolises burned and democracy collapsed under the weight of terror and confusion. Neighbors clawed at each other's eyes in the street for a last loaf of bread even as disease spread through the crowds mobbing the food vaults.
That was half a century ago and a only a handful of survivors remember those sorry times. It's 2063. We've regrouped, coming together by way of ideology, religion, or simple co-dependence, and not always peacefully. There's the memory of the old world and all that data out there somewhere, like an invisible gold mine floating in the sky waiting to be tapped. Some want to reconnect to that past; others want to eradicate it from memory and start over with a clean slate. What about you? What kind of future do you envision? And more importantly, are you willing to stick your neck out to see it come to pass?